Clap Hands, Here Comes Charlie!

Ella Fitzgerald

Product Details

• Audio CD (June 8, 1989)
• Original Release Date: June 22, 1961
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Polygram Records
• ASIN: B00000477N
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #125,049 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com
This early '60s studio session captures Ella Fitzgerald moving toward the smaller, more pointedly jazz-inflected ensembles that would shape her career in her final decades. After the lush orchestrations of her classic series of composer songbooks, which found her collaborating with the best arrangers, the intimate scale and easy interplay of a crack band provide a wonderful platform for the spirited performances here. That Ella herself savored the opportunity is reflected in a program that includes Thelonious Monk's "After Midnight" and a breezy, potent ride through the Charlie Parker/Dizzy Gillespie anthem, "Night In Tunisia." With a mix of bona fide standards and revived swing classics, this is a rediscovered gem, cause enough to clap hands. --Sam Sutherland

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars 50,000 stars, September 7, 2003

By	"garfieldguy" (Matthews, NC United States) - See all my reviews

This is one of Ella's very best (if no THE best) albums. Heck, it's one of the best vocal jazz albums *period.* It's just Ella and a small group, but it will blow you away. I recommend it to everyone, and it makes a great first choice for those just now looking into the First Lady of Song. Every track is choice, but "Night In Tunisa," "'Round Midnight," "Jersey Bounce," and "Music Goes Round and Around" stand out. The best song is "Spring Can Really Hang You Up the Most." It's the best rendition of that song by anyone anywhere. :-D

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Clap Hands, Here Comes Ella, July 18, 2000

By	Stony (Pittsburgh, PA United States) - See all my reviews

This cd is worth it alone for "I Got a Guy." She takes a potentially sappy song and makes it tender, pure, honest, and oh-so beautiful. Her version of "This Could Be the Start of Something Big" should have made songwriter Steve Allen very happy. In other hands, this song can (and does) sound really tacky, like it belongs in a lounge act--but not in Ella's hands. She swings it! They didn't call her Lady Time for nothing. "Stella by Starlight" is quite good, and Ella's version of "Spring Can Really Hang You Up the Most" is quite intimate and soulful. Overall, this is very good recording of songs made during the vocal prime of the best singer (in my opinion) ever captured on record.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Pure Magic, June 2, 2003

By	"amateurviolinist" (Berkeley, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This is probably my favorite Ella CD. Recorded in her prime--the early 1960s--it eschews the overlush arrangements and unembellished singing of her "Songbook" period and returns to her swing roots. This time she chooses a small combo of top-notch musicians and takes an attitude that's at once more intense and more playful than before, steering a course between the score-bound style of the mid-50s and the showy scat singing that made her famous in the 40s. Here the singing is very tender and contains the most tasteful, imaginative, and beautiful ornaments & phrasings I've ever heard in jazz singing--listen, for example, to the haunting last bars of "Round Midnight" and see if the hairs of your arms don't rise. What's even more notable is the large number of bop standards and slow ballads on this album. It's all wonderful, but I would name "Night in Tunisia," "Round Midnight," "Cry Me A River," "Good Morning, Heartache," and "Spring Can Really Hang You Up the Most" as my favorite tracks.

Also highly recommended are "Ella in Berlin" and "Ella in Rome," both recorded during the same period (late 1950s, early 1960s) with small combos.